The Ultimate Price Political Correctness (PC)

I like many others I have been saddened and outranged by the occurrences which took place in Manchester, and in London, with the loss of so many lives in the name of the Islamic faith. However, before I get into this article please, please let us be clear that this is not a matter of most Muslims being terrorists – this carnage is the product of a small, warped and radicalised minority residing within their communities. In fact, when it comes to Muslims, some of the kindest and most respectful people I know are from that faith, so at the outset we from other religious backgrounds must assure we ourselves are not the subject of radicalisation as a by-product of terrorism.

So, here we are again in the week of Infosecurity 2017 – where no doubt encounter much about the current Cyber Threats, and of course, no doubt GDPR will represent the latest big commercial issue which will gain much focus – but my question here is, again, will this commercial platform consider the real risk and dangers in our midst when it comes to Cyber Security – and that is the subject of Cyber Terror, and all such matters associated? I doubt it very much as, as in Infosecurity terms it simply has no street value, so will not get the exposure the subject demands.

When we consider what amounts to a Terrorist, or other such parties who are displaying supportive tendencies, then we need to look to the 12,000 likes which a Tweet received in relation to the recent London Bridge attack in which the innocent public paid the ultimate price with their lives, along with many who sustained serious injury. In my humble opinion, every single person in the group who ‘liked’ that Tweet is a potential terrorist who may go active – and as such ‘every’ active party who was liking this tweet is committing an act of sedition, and should be investigated by Law Enforcement [wherever they may be] and marked as a danger to society as is appropriate.

Looking to the world of tolerance, I reflect to when I worked for a large Credit Reference Agency situated in Nottingham. Here the company invested heavily in monitoring, for what was considered Porn, and along the way on multiple occasions there were communication in flow which supported the mindset of terror – videos and images which included the severing of heads, and terrorist groups kicking heads around like they were footballs – was this reported to the appropriate authorities? Answer NO. In fact, when working for this same company, it was reported to me that one employee had used a memorable name for his password reset – that name was Bin Laden! Seeing the implication of such a choice, I reported this up to a higher, executive authority, only to be told by HR that this was a matter of the persons privilege to use whatever term they wished, and that in fact my comments were a matter of breaching Data Protection Laws, and the subjects Privacy – so no action was again taken!

When it comes to Government Ministers and their Knee Jerk, and U-Turn attitudes to anything security related, during the General Election 2017 we see Shoot to Kill policies in question, lies about the number of Police Officers on our streets, and recognition that if such an attack as was seen in London took place in any other part of the UK, this would stretch resources to say the least – are Government Ministers in High Office telling fibs? No, far from it. They are simply being economical with the cold light of day truth!

When we arrive at the door of known-knowns, post the recent outrageous attack on the Houses of Parliament, being aware that there was a proven, and extant security vulnerability in place in one area of the Palaces physical security, I raised this with my Local MP by email [Maggie Throup], as well as the PM, and James Brokenshire MP and left a message, copying in Cheryl Gillan MP to the email [as she is aware of the vulnerability I was referring to]. To my surprise, the only response I ever got from my own MP, was generated from some limpet who referred to himself as Chief of Staff in the guise covered threat to advise me to not expose this matter further – but fundamentally, there was no interest in the actual exposure itself, notwithstanding again, lives had been lost!

Until such time our society chooses to follow a strong line in pursuit of all those who we know have been allowed to radicalize, and respond to those displaying the early green shoots of a potential terrorist in the making, then we will continue to be exposed, not just to the current level of internal dangers, but we will be culpable of allowing them to grow on our homeland soil. Until we see Government Ministers move from the convivence of political rhetoric, to following through with investing in the correct level of recourse we will be exposed. And above all, when we encounter MP’s who have had strong and visible relationships with terrorist groups, be they IRA, or others from the inner-sanctum of Far East, we must tag such personalities as the potential incarnation of a Very British Coup, the likes of which Chris Mullin wrote about in his book.

The time has now arrived in which we must see PC as an accommodation we can no longer afford or tolerate – the time has arrived where we all must get serious about fighting the fight against those who pose a very real and credible threat to our way of life. But about all, the time is here in which, no matter the religious beliefs, we stand as one society. Time is here to say enough is enough.

About Professor John Walker

Visiting Professor at the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Visiting Professor/Lecturer at the University of Slavonia [to 2015], Independent Consultant, Practicing Expert Witness, ENISA CEI Listed Expert, Editorial Member of the Cyber Security Research Institute (CRSI), Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS), Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA), Board Advisor to the Digital Trust, Writer for SC Magazine UK, Originator of DarkWeb Threat Intelligence, CSIRT, Attack Remediation and Cyber Training Service/Platform, Accreditation Assessor and Academic Practitioner and Accredited Advisor to the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences in the area of Digital/Cyber Forensics.
Twitter: @SBLTD
John Walker is also our Expert Panel member. To find out more about our panel members visit the biographies page.